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Puppet Series - The first
known television puppet show aired November 6, 1931 over experimental
station W3XK in Wheaton, Maryland. Bernard H. Paul was the puppeteer who
brought the marionettes to life on this test broadcast.
Another source
(Famous First Facts) claims that the first puppet show to be televised
was a two-minute "symbolic" one-act play which aired August 21, 1928 on WOR-TV
in Newark, New Jersey. It featured two puppets representing "Creative
Genius" and "The Spirit of Television."
TRIVIA NOTE: The first successful children's entertainment show on
television was HOWDY DOODY TIME premiering on December 27, 1947 in New York
on the NBC network. The program featured freckled-faced stringed marionette
named Howdy Doody. and won the George F. Peabody award in 1948 for best
children's TV series. The series produced another first during its last
broadcast episode. On September 24, 1960 after 2,343 programs, Clarabell the
Clown (Lew Anderson) broke his silence and spoke on camera for the first
time in thirteen years. He simply looked into the camera and said "Goodbye,
Kids." This was followed by the cast singing one last time "It's time to say
goodbye, goodbye until some other day when we may be with you again."
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